favourite Apple II chess game?

[power supply]

What's your favourite Apple II chess program?
(Including all models in the Apple II family)

[Terry Olsen]

I remember playing Sargon on the IIc...

Post by power supply
What's your favourite Apple II chess program?
(Including all models in the Apple II family)

[David Wilson]

Post by Terry Olsen
I remember playing Sargon on the IIc...

I think that may have been the one I played as well.

I never had a favorite - they could all beat me :-(.

[Kirk Mitchell]

Post by power supply
What's your favourite Apple II chess program?
(Including all models in the Apple II family)

I don't know if I have a favorite. Every stinking one from Sargon back
in my Apple II+ days, to Battle Chess in my IIgs days, have
consistently kicked my butt.

I guess we need programs like this to keep us humble. B-{)

Kirk

[xorxif]

Post by power supply
What's your favourite Apple II chess program?
(Including all models in the Apple II family)

Well I always liked Microchess for the Apple II, I think though it was
mostly because the interface was kinda like an interactive fiction game
for me, figuring it out and all. Of course I never beat it, even on the
easiest level... :/
The interface reminded me of Deathmaze 5000, which I DID eventually
beat, of course with hints :P.

[mmphosis]

Micro Chess, Apple II+
IQ=1 ; to win once in a while
N ; to label the squares

[Paul Schlyter]

Post by power supply
What's your favourite Apple II chess program?
(Including all models in the Apple II family)

Microchess was fun to play, but didn't play very well. It was so
focused on capturing pieces. Several times I put Microchess in a
situation where it could choose between checkmating me and capturing
one of my pieces -- usually Microchess would then choose to capture my
piece !!!!!!!!!

Sargon played much better - I rarely won against Sargon.

Battle Chess, which someone else here mentioned, of course had
entertaining graphics but also played chess horribly, somewhat
like Microchess. I never played Battle Chess on an Apple II
though, only on a PC.

[Terry Olsen]

Post by Paul Schlyter
Sargon played much better - I rarely won against Sargon.

Has anyone ever pitted Sargon (or other A2 Chess game) against a modern
counterpart on a PC or Mac?

[Andy McFadden]

Post by Terry Olsen

Post by Paul Schlyter
Sargon played much better - I rarely won against Sargon.

Has anyone ever pitted Sargon (or other A2 Chess game) against a modern
counterpart on a PC or Mac?

Sargon itself was improved several times over the years. Its original
claim to fame was winning the computer-vs-computer competition at the
1978 West Coast Computer Faire.

The Z80 sources for the original Sargon were published in book form. Scans
can be found on the web (http://www.madscientistroom.org/chm/Sargon.html).
The non-source commentary seems to focus more on the mechanics of presenting
the game than on the actual chess logic, which was somewhat disappointing.

[Eric]

Post by Andy McFadden
The Z80 sources for the original Sargon were published in book form. Scans
can be found on the web (http://www.madscientistroom.org/chm/Sargon.html).
The non-source commentary seems to focus more on the mechanics of presenting
the game than on the actual chess logic, which was somewhat disappointing.

Yes, but the authors also published a series of articles in Byte that
described the logic in great detail. At least I think it was them who
wrote those articles. It was 1978 or 1979, I think.

[Roger Johnstone]

Post by Terry Olsen

Post by Paul Schlyter
Sargon played much better - I rarely won against Sargon.

Has anyone ever pitted Sargon (or other A2 Chess game) against a
modern counterpart on a PC or Mac?

Many years ago I used to play Sargon II on a friend's Apple IIc. When I
got my own Apple clone (Dick Smith Cat, aka Laser 3000) I had the
brilliant idea of pitting Sargon II against itself. This involved
running the game on both computers, one playing black and the other
white, and then manually entering the moves into each game.
Unfortunately, not so brilliantly, we set both games to the same
difficulty level. The result was a draw, with each game ending up with
just their queen left, moving back and forth across the board.

[Paul Guertin]

Post by Terry Olsen
Has anyone ever pitted Sargon (or other A2 Chess game) against a modern
counterpart on a PC or Mac?

Once in 1988, after buying my first Mac, I played Sargon III for the
Apple II (with a 4 MHz Zip Chip) versus Sargon for the Macintosh
(8 MHz Mac SE), about one minute per move. The Mac won easily.

Paul Guertin
***@sff.net

[N.N. Thayer]

Sargon III, easily.

Back in college I shared a house with five students. One day the guy
who owned the Nintendo 64 moved out and the only gaming machine left
was my Apple II Plus. By popular demand I brought it down to the
living room and busted out a few games. I'm still not sure why, but
the very first game requested was chess. I produced Sargon III and it
became the most-played game for months until we all went our separate
ways. *shrug*

[Tempest]

Probably ChessMaster 2000 when I wanted a serious game of chess, or
Battle Chess when I just wanted to be entertained. :)

I remember getting ChessMaster back when I was about 12. My parents
couldn't understand why a 'little kid' wanted a chess game, but I
bagged them to get it for me anyway. I not only ended up learning how
to play chess, but became pretty damn good at it too.

CM2K also introduced me to the Franklin Ace and Laser series of Apple
clones because it ended up asking you which type of computer you have
and the Franklin Ace and Laser series were listed there. It wasn't
until much later on that I finally figured out what they were.

I always wondered why it asked though, as far as I can tell they're
functionally the same. Why would the game care?

[PZ]

My overall favorite was Chessmaster 2100, however early on I played
Microchess and Sargon quite a bit. I liked the uncomplicated graphics
of Microchess better than that of Sargon, but Sargon was more powerful.
It always amused me when the computer made crazy suicidal moves once
it realized that you had it beat. Battlechess never did much for me
except for the entertainment value, it was a nice demo though.

I recently picked up a copy of Colussus Chess IV, but havn't had a
crack at it yet.

- Paul

Post by power supply
What's your favourite Apple II chess program?
(Including all models in the Apple II family)

[Bryan Parkoff]

Post by power supply
What's your favourite Apple II chess program?
(Including all models in the Apple II family)

I like playing 3D chess game like Star Trek, but it has never been
programmed in any Apple II yet.

Bryan Parkoff

[Chris Alaimo]

Nobody likes Colossus Chess? (It's the only one I own. Colossus Chess
IV).

Pitting an Apple II chess game against a modern chess game on my PC
sounds like a fun idea. I might have to give that a go.

Chris

Post by Bryan Parkoff

Post by power supply
What's your favourite Apple II chess program?
(Including all models in the Apple II family)

I like playing 3D chess game like Star Trek, but it has never been
programmed in any Apple II yet.
Bryan Parkoff